Libertarian statement of solidarity with the comrades in Oaxaca, Mexico

We take this opportunity to express our solidarity with this people, and express our readiness to support and assist future efforts to break the siege and to defeat the alliance of political gangsterism, the mafia-like paramilitarism and oligarchic despotism. The struggle of the people of Oaxaca is our struggle too. [Castellano] [Italiano]
[Français] [Čeština] [العربية]

Libertarian statement of solidarity with the comrades in Oaxaca, Mexico

In light of the tragic events of 27 April 2010, when a solidarity caravan of observers bound for the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala (Oaxaca, Mexico) was subjected to a cowardly attack by paramilitaries linked to governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, resulting in the death of comrade Beatriz Alberta Cariño Trujillo and Finnish comrade Jyri Jaakkola, we, the undersigned organizations, declare:

Our total solidarity with the families of these dear comrades murdered in such a vile way. Our thoughts are with those who today suffer the irreparable loss of their loved ones.

Our political support for the grassroots organizational processes of the people of Oaxaca which, despite State terrorism, are making progress in this struggle for the autonomy and liberation of the peoples of Oaxaca. Our political support goes especially to those organizations that were the direct victims of this attack: the Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS - Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos) and Oaxacan Voices Building Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL - Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad).

Our sympathy and support for the Autonomous Municipality San Juan Copala, which is now surrounded by UBISORT paramilitaries, who have cut off electricity, are preventing food supplies to the population with roadblocks and have been killing and harassing the population with impunity for several years.

That the paramilitaries act with the full complicity of local bosses, in the political service of the corrupt PRI's mafias, the party of the current tyrant of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

That this is not an isolated event, merely the latest in a long series of threats and attacks by the State against the peoples of Oaxaca and the resistance organizations that are part of the social fabric of this essentially libertarian struggle. Since 2006 the repression has been escalating, and the authorities have amply demonstrated their brutality - this crime is part of the process of State terrorism, and has been a harsh blow, though hardly a surprising one.

In consequence of the above, the signatories of this statement demand:

Clarification of the events that led to the murder of our comrades, followed by the trial and punishment of those materially responsible and the politicians morally responsible for this crime.

An end to the criminal siege of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala by the paramilitaries.

We have no illusions about the authorities cooperating in these demands, since we know that in the end they are the ones who are responsible for the murders, with the paramilitaries simply doing the dirty work.

Satisfaction of these demands will only come through the struggle of the people, through the pressure that the popular organizations can exercise and through their capacity for mobilization from below. We take this opportunity, therefore, to express our solidarity with this people, and express our readiness to support and assist future efforts to break the siege and to defeat the alliance of political gangsterism, the mafia-like paramilitarism and oligarchic despotism. The struggle of the people of Oaxaca is our struggle too.

Our eyes are on Oaxaca!

We extend one hand to our comrades, the other raised in a defiant fist against the tyranny!

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At approximately 3.50 pm on Sunday 29 January 2012, our comrade David Venegas Reyes was arbitrarily arrested on the direct orders of Jesús Martínez Álvarez, Secretary General of the Government of Oaxaca; this happened as he, along with other comrades, was accompanying the caravan back to the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala, led for over a year by the displaced women. [Castellano] [Français]

The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee calls on supporters worldwide to protest against the injustice suffered by Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. Gather on February 4, 2012, at every federal court house and U.S. embassy or consulate worldwide to demand the freedom of a man wrongfully convicted and illegal imprisoned for 36 years!

The prisoners in Macon, Hays, Telfair, Baldwin, Valdosta, and Smith state prisons do not have picket signs we can read, no do they have speeches that can be read out loud to us. We cannot see their faces or hear their voices. They are mostly invisible to us. It is now up to us to break though this wall of invisibility purposely imposed upon us and prisoners, by those who control society and our lives. The right to strike is the right of every exploited person in an exploitive society, prisoner or not.

The WSA condemns this attack and the arbitrary power which it claims for the
repressive agencies of the state. We should also note the hypocrisy of the
state agencies who do not shrink from supporting or engaging in mass-scale
terrorism abroad, while asserting arbitrary powers at home in the name of
"anti-terrorism" and allowing domestic armed extremists to assist in
policing the border in Arizona. [Castellano]

The press conference was given by two representatives from the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, Jorge Albino Ortiz and Adalberto Hernandez Alvarez and attended by 17 different media organisations, including official and independent electronic media, as well as magazines and newspapers. The atmosphere was tense and expectant of the autonomous representatives statements about the assassination of its top leader, Timoteo Alejandro Ramirez and his wife Cleriberta Castro and the continuing actions of the Triqui organization.

We demand that the murders of Bety Cariño, member of the CACTUS human rights organization and tireless activist in the defense of our Mother Earth, and of Jyri Jaakkola, international observer for peace with justice and dignity, not go unpunished. And we call on people to channel all the state, national, and international attention that this attack has aroused in the society, social movements, and the press towards the cause that led us to embark on the solidarity caravan that fateful day of April 27. WE MUST BREAK THE SIEGE AROUND SAN JUAN COPALA AND STOP AN EVEN HEAVIER ATTACK BY PRI-UBISORT. [Castellano]

For several weeks, from the highest levels of the government of [Oaxaca governor] Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, a state-wide campaign of defamation, harassment and persecution has been orchestrated and unleashed against the Committee in Defense of the Rights of the People (CODEP-APPO), a campaign that brings as one of its first consequences the assassination of Sergio Martínez Vásquez, member of the State Council of CODEP. It is important to mention that this calculated murder was preceded by the police surveillance and tracking of our offices and of veiled and open threats against different members of CODEP.

Why the state over-reacted is now being debated. Many people figure they deliberately let the black bloc run free as a rationalization for the billion squandered on “security.” An equal number believe the violence was a warning of what to expect if people react against the coming government cut-backs, the so-called austerity program to destroy workers living standards. Others think that the government does not have such a fine tuned level of control and the police simply went berserk, venting their hatred against those who do not share their anti-democratic sentiments.

Since the time we are young we are saturated with images of the friendly cop, there to help you and your community. We are told the police are here to protect us from the "bad guys" and keep us safe from the salivating hordes of criminals just waiting for an opportunity to harm us. But what really is the function of the police? Who are they really here to protect? Here Devin K tries to answer such questions.

The day after online footage revealed the presence of police provocateurs at the Montebello SPP summit protest the Quebec police have been forced to admit that the rock wielding men initially confronted for being in the agreed 'family friendly' zone by a union leader were indeed police agents.

January 23, 2007 should be a day that lives in infamy within the movements for social justice in North America. On that date, the nearly four decades long war on the Black Panthers was shown to still exist. Nine individuals, most identified as being members of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, were charged with murder or murder related crimes by officials in California. The incident in question involved the killing of a police officer inside the police station in which he worked in 1971. Over 35 years later, the struggle that the killing of the officer symbolizes is alive and strong.

At approximately 3.50 pm on Sunday 29 January 2012, our comrade David Venegas Reyes was arbitrarily arrested on the direct orders of Jesús Martínez Álvarez, Secretary General of the Government of Oaxaca; this happened as he, along with other comrades, was accompanying the caravan back to the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala, led for over a year by the displaced women. [Castellano] [Français]

The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee calls on supporters worldwide to protest against the injustice suffered by Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. Gather on February 4, 2012, at every federal court house and U.S. embassy or consulate worldwide to demand the freedom of a man wrongfully convicted and illegal imprisoned for 36 years!

The prisoners in Macon, Hays, Telfair, Baldwin, Valdosta, and Smith state prisons do not have picket signs we can read, no do they have speeches that can be read out loud to us. We cannot see their faces or hear their voices. They are mostly invisible to us. It is now up to us to break though this wall of invisibility purposely imposed upon us and prisoners, by those who control society and our lives. The right to strike is the right of every exploited person in an exploitive society, prisoner or not.

The WSA condemns this attack and the arbitrary power which it claims for the
repressive agencies of the state. We should also note the hypocrisy of the
state agencies who do not shrink from supporting or engaging in mass-scale
terrorism abroad, while asserting arbitrary powers at home in the name of
"anti-terrorism" and allowing domestic armed extremists to assist in
policing the border in Arizona. [Castellano]